Right to left : Martin Ojeda, John Ramirez, and heavyweight Bill Prosser.

Photo courtesy of Martin Noriega.

 This is a picture of the ex-Heavyweight champion of the world “The Manassa Mauler” Jack Dempsey (right) as he spars with Fritz Huntsinger at Soper’s Ranch on Highway 33 north of Ojai, circa 1927.


"During 1927, Jack Dempsey had a training camp near New York City before his bout with Jack Sharkey at Yankee Stadium and another training camp near Chicago before his bout with Gene Tunney at Soldier Field. Before going back east, Dempsey had been training at Pop Soper's. It may be that Dempsey went up to Soper's because he wanted to get into great condition even before training back in the East. For major bouts, fighters generally did their final training at places near the cities where they were scheduled to fight. This was done so that newspaper reporters of those cities had easy access to the fighters. It was part of promoting the bouts. It is likely that Fritz Huntsinger was simply posing with Jack Dempsey rather than sparring with him. Dempsey was known to go all out in sparring sessions. Huntsinger owned a huge company, Vetco, that once manufactured oil equipment at plant in Ventura. Vetco is now located in Houston." - Boxing historian Chuck Johnston 

Right to left : Martin Noriega, Robert Garcia, and Saul Perez (arms crossed), "Dangerous" Danny Perez (second to last), and at the end trainer Danny Garcia.

Photo courtesy of Martin Noriega.

Page 4

International Boxing Hall of Famer Mickey Walker at Soper's Ranch in Ojai before his March 1934 match against Tom Patrick at the Hollywood Legion Stadium.

Adam "The Bomb" Flores looking confident before battle. 

Right to left : La Colonia Boxing Club's Martin Ojeda getting his hand raised after a bout in 1986.

Photo courtesy of Martin Noriega.

805 Boxing Pictures - ( Page 4 of 4 )

Soper's Ranch was up the Maricopa Highway from Ojai near Wheelers Hot Springs. It later became Ojala. The boxers used to jog up and down the Maricopa Highway during training.


​"There were quite a number of fighters who trained at Soper's for important bouts in Los Angeles. Jack Roper, essentially a club fighter, trained at Soper's for his bout with the then-reigning world heavyweight champion, Joe Louis, that was staged at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles during 1939. Louis was highly active while he was a champion in addition to being dominant. While Louis fought every top heavyweight that came his way, it is true that he also faced some subpar opposition like Roper to keep busy. There is high quality footage of the Louis-Roper bout in which Louis won by a knockout in the first round." - Boxing historian Chuck Johnston

 This is a 1982 booklet for Oxnard resident Michael Lopez who was murdered as a teenager in the early 80's. (Click on any pic in this booklet to enlarge each picture.)

Soper's Ranch sign.


​"According to his World War II draft registration card, Clarence Anthony Soper was born on May 9, 1881 in Matilija Canyon, California. He passed away on May 17, 1957. According to a news item in the September 20, 1957 edition of the Ventura County Star-Free Press, the Soper training camp property had been sold by Soper's estate to John Lagomasino for $3,175. But according to Ray A. Schultz, a Ventura County building inspector, it was ordered that Soper's ranch store and the fighters' training center building be closed and demolished. The building was found "to be unsafe, beyond repair and its demolition and removal from the premises were (sic) ordered." - Chuck Johnston

Right to left : Moses Perez, Ernesto Chavez, "Dangerous" Danny Perez, Robert Garcia, and Ramon Villanueva.

Photo courtesy of Martin Noriega.

Another picture of Walker and his family in the local paper.